


So You Think That's An Age Gap?

by jalapeno_eye_popper



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Double Date, F/M, Fluff, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26580946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalapeno_eye_popper/pseuds/jalapeno_eye_popper
Summary: This one is dedicated to the Page394 SSHG Discord crew. One of my own off-hand comments there about double dates between SSHG and RLNT put a bug up my butt, so here it is. This fic is a bit AU. Definitely EWE. And obviously some extra people survived, just so I could make them double-date :)
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 11
Kudos: 119
Collections: Best of SSHG, Page 394 Discord Collection, Severus/Hermione





	So You Think That's An Age Gap?

It only took Hermione Granger a few years of working at the Ministry to decide that it was more soul-sucking than ten dementors. Paperwork. Bureaucracy. Ladder-climbers constantly sabotaging her.

So, on a freezing Monday morning in late February, she took her exceptional skills at documentation over to St. Mungo's and never looked back. She loved working in the Venoms & Poisons lab. It was challenging, intellectually stimulating, and _he_ was a regular visitor.

Severus Snape's continued existence was a miracle of healing magic, and the clever bastard had saved _himself_ with an extremely powerful all-purpose antivenin of his own invention. The healers at St. Mungo's had no trouble repairing his torn throat, and now it was Hermione's job to catalog his ingenious brew's indications and contraindications, on top of her weekly task of managing the lab inventory. Twenty percent of which he personally supplied.

After the first uncomfortable meeting in her office, Snape had been curt and unpleasant about the furniture, the lighting, and the company.

Hermione took it in stride. This behavior wasn't exactly surprising from him, and she was growing a thick skin from all the people in pain lashing out when even her top-tier inventory failed to relieve their suffering. Instead, she rather saw his point, and after he was gone, she drew her wand and got transfiguring.

She was a witch, after all. No sense in living with uncomfortable furniture, when she could try to fix it.

When Snape returned a month later, he simply raised one eyebrow at the change and chose the spot on the left side of the new sofa, propping his booted feet on the coffee table and raising one eyebrow.

Hermione came around and sat next to him. "Well, Mister Snape, here's the list for the inventory, and here are the latest trial results."

The first list he simply tucked into his robe, but the second he studied carefully. "Patient 42 didn't respond at all?"

"No," Hermione said softly, a pang in her heart at the disappointed downward turn of his lips. It was exactly how she felt.

They worked on the problem all afternoon, sucking down coffee while an enchanted quill took dictation.

This was how it went, for six months, meeting to work, drinking enough strong coffee to keep a herd of hippogriffs awake, and saving a couple hundred lives. At some point, they slipped casually to using each other's given names, and Hermione always smiled at the way his voice carefully drew out each syllable.

And then he stopped coming.

She was surprised at how it stung, when she put on a pot of coffee, fluffed the sofa cushions, laid out a tray of snacks (even though they never touched the food, it was just polite to have the option), everything ready just for Severus, only to receive a note in his place. For the next few months, owls came and went, simply requesting the next set of usual documents and offering a bit of feedback, with all the red ink she associated with her old schoolwork.

The winter holidays fast approached, and Hermione always dreaded the melancholy that came with them. She always attended the weekend party at the Burrow, but most of her surviving friends had paired off, many of those starting families. She didn't even have her parents. They were still in Australia, responding to the name Wilkins.

But maybe there was someone she could have, after all. No sense in living without him, when she could try to fix it.

Thus, on the day before the party at the Burrow, Hermione found herself in Cokeworth, shuffling her feet and suddenly quite nervous about announcing her presence. Gathering her courage, Hermione took a deep breath, ran a hand through her wild hair, and knocked.

A minute later, the door swung inward, and Severus Snape scowled at her.

She had never been so happy to see someone scowl. Before she could lose her nerve, she blurted out, "I missed you. Can I come in?"

The line of his mouth straightened, and one eyebrow arched up toward his hairline. He didn't say yes, but he didn't say no, either. He locked his eyes with hers, and Hermione felt an odd sensation.

It was like a knock. A knock on the door of her mind. She bit her lip nervously, and then without breaking eye contact, nodded exactly once.

There over the threshold he took a good look through her memory of the last year, the nights at home alone, the slogging days of her normal work routine, and the brief flashes of happiness at his monthly visits breaking up that monotony.

He abruptly withdrew from her mind and stepped aside so she could come in. She didn't hesitate, and, once inside, he led her straight to the sofa, taking the spot on the left and propping his booted feet on the coffee table.

Hermione smiled brightly as she took the place next to him.

Severus frowned slightly, and he said, "I apologize. You have been nothing but honest with me, and I am too suspicious of pretty witches showing up at my doorstep."

Smirking, she asked, "Get a lot of those, do you?"

He grimaced. "You have no idea. Potter may as well have made my memories into a film, for the picture he painted in all the interviews. Entirely too many deluded women picture themselves as the only one who could possibly soothe my grief and help me move on from the unrequited love of my past."

Their expressions swapped, him smirking at her grimace.

"Hermione," he rumbled, low and slow, "It seems I was quite wrong about an unrequited love in my present."

Her heart leapt, and then she did, too, right into his lap.

"Unh!" he grunted in surprise. "Watch it, witch!"

She planted a kiss on his lips before he could say anything else. He kissed her back, but with a surprising gentlemanly restraint that fired up her inner lion. She resolved to get them both roaring before the night was through.

\----------

Hermione was no doubt glowing as she walked up to the door of the Burrow, which opened wide before she could even knock.

Ron Weasley stepped out and boomed, "Hermione!" before picking her up in a bear hug and twirling her around. "You're just in time. Fleur is driving mum bonkers, and it's too cold to send everyone outside, even with warming charms."

She had learned long ago that the best way to help Molly Weasley in the kitchen was to run interference with all those who would get in the way. So she did, and from the doorway she listened to Molly catch her up on all the Weasley gossip.

After stuffing her face with the delicious feast, Hermione found herself sitting next to Remus, sipping eggnog and looking at pictures of Teddy. She was lost in thought, scheming up excuses to leave and go back to Spinner's End, so she was only half-listening when she caught the end of his sentence, "...reminds me that I am too dangerous. Even with Severus brewing the Wolfsbane, my being away for a couple of days a month means Dora has the whole challenge of parenting alone."

Hermione shook her fuzzy head. "Don't be daft. For Merlin's sake, Remus, get a sitter or something."

He smiled. "Are you volunteering?"

"Gods, no," she quickly replied. Then she fiddled with her glass and said, "Don't you take Tonks out on dates? Who watches Teddy then?"

The smile dropped off his face. "Actually, no, not really. Between her career and my transformations and the ankle-biter, much as we love him, we're both exhausted." He paused a beat. "But Dora might like that. She's still young enough to want that kind of romance."

"Oh, no, please don't tell me you have those doubts about your age gap again."

A slight pink rose in his cheeks as he tucked the pictures back into his pocket.

Ha. Buckle up, Remus. She had that age gap beat, for sure. Hermione's lip curled as she considered the possibilities. "I think I should tell you something, but only if you promise to arrange that sitter and go on a double date."

"A double date?" Remus shifted his eyes around the room, checking that everyone else was engrossed in their own conversations or games. "You do seem a bit more cheerful than usual. I didn't know you were seeing someone."

"I wasn't. Not until yesterday. But I think we should all get together at New Year's and ring it in together."

"All right, Hermione, I'm game."

"Good." She gave him a wicked little smile. "Now all I need is to get Severus on board."

He laughed, a rich, deep chuckle. "Did he finally find his backbone, then?"

Hermione blinked in surprise. She had expected to be the one to shock him, and yet...

"That's good, Hermione. He was a wreck, must have been a few months ago, when I came for my Wolfsbane, and _he_ was the one with all the same doubts I still can't quite shake."

Her jaw hung slack, but she snapped it shut as she saw Tonks approach. Remus saw the way her gaze shifted, and looked over his shoulder. Even in profile, the way his face lit up as he saw his love warmed Hermione's soul and renewed her confidence.

She cleared her throat, knocked back the last of her drink, and stood. "Thanks, Remus. I'll let you know what he says."

\----------

Late in the evening, on the last day of December, Hermione and Tonks were on tenterhooks as they listened in from the other side of Severus' kitchen wall. Tonks was an auror, and that job required certain skills in covert surveillance. Certain skills that were quite handy at the moment, as Hermione had been rather alarmed when Severus abruptly abandoned their awkward double-date in his living room, fled to the kitchen with Remus on his heels, and warded the door against the girls.

They were both wringing their hands as they tried to listen to a conversation specifically shielded from them, and Hermione was getting a little nauseated at the way Tonks could literally twist her bones like a dishcloth and then morph them back to normal.

"Why wait?" they heard Remus ask sharply.

But they could not hear Severus' reply.

"Don't be daft, Severus, and she's not daft either. Just do it."

Then Tonks' eyes went wide, bugging out far beyond the sockets as she pulled Hermione away and canceled all her spying charms. They were trying to look nonchalant as the men came back out of the kitchen. Tonks made a show of checking her wristwatch. "Oh, just in time!"

Remus had the champagne, and Severus handed out flutes, looking for all the world as though that was their whole purpose in the kitchen.

Tonks and Remus counted down to midnight, and Hermione only had eyes for Severus. "Happy new year," she whispered, pulling him close.

He kissed her softly, and then leaned his forehead down against hers. "It's hardly been two weeks," he murmured, "But it feels like forever."

She scoffed. "We've been developing these feelings a lot longer than two weeks."

"Don't interrupt, miss know-it-all. I'm trying to ask you to _make_ it forever."

\----------

Ten years later, Teddy was the sitter for the Snape children, and their parents continued the tradition of New Year's double dates.


End file.
